With just over a week to go until the California legislature's June 15th constitutional budget deadline, Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg said he's "relatively confident" a deal will be reached in time.
The disagreement between legislative Democrats and Governor Jerry Brown continues to be how to pay down debt and create a budget reserve - while restoring some of the deepest budget cuts in recent years.
"That is a challenging balance but it is an achievable balance," Steinberg said. "I think you'll see and I hope you'll see that over the next 10 days, we will achieve that balance."
Potential beneficiaries include mental and dental health care, child care and the court system.
Steinberg said negotiators are also trying out different funding formulas for K-12 schools in hopes of reaching a deal on the governor's proposal to spend more on the most challenged students.
Last year, legislative Democrats passed their own spending plan to meet the deadline even though they had yet to reach a deal with the governor. Steinberg said he doesn't expect that to happen again this year.
